Austin optimistic over van Veen injury as Cobblers continue pre-season campaign at Brackley

Van Veen was part of the second-half side which took to the field at Clarence Park after sitting out the first 45 minutes but he was withdrawn prematurely, forced off with 15 minutes remaining and replaced by young Camron McWilliams.

Austin has allayed any serious fears over the Dutchman’s injury however, saying: “It was only as a precaution. He said that he had some fatigue in his thigh during the week.

“We’ve had a very, very hard week and he felt his thigh in the game and I’m never going to take any chances with any players so, touch wood, he’ll be OK come training and we’ll take it from there.”

FA Trophy winners Brackley, who narrowly missed out on promotion to the National League last season having lost in the play-off final, were 4-2 winners in a pre-season friendly against Northampton two years ago and they’ll be looking to repeat the trick this evening.

“Every game is going to be a tough test and that’s what we want – we’re trying to build it up and build our momentum every game so the fixtures become a little bit more difficult,” said Austin.

“The boys will start getting some more minutes now as we start to build fitness up, but I’m very happy with what we’ve got at the moment.”